[July 01, 2011] Broadband brings 21st century to Leon Tweet LEON, W.Va., Jun 09, 2011 (Charleston Daily Mail - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The 21st century has come to this Mason County community in the form of high-speed Internet access. It is transforming education, business and everyday life. Verizon Communications extended broadband from Buffalo 10 miles north to the Leon Elementary School about 18 months ago but didn't make it available to the community. Frontier Communications Corp. extended it to the community this spring. Frontier bought Verizon's West Virginia landline business last July 1. The deal instantly made Frontier the largest telecommunications provider in the state. The company said it would invest or use nearly a half-billion dollars in West Virginia in coming years to expand broadband availability and improve landline service. When asked for examples of people who have recently received broadband access, the company cited several customers in Leon, including Mayor Bruce Riffle. Riffle retired in 2003 from a corporate information technology job in Columbus, Ohio. He had very high-speed service in Columbus. In Leon, prior to the arrival of Frontier's broadband, the choices were wireless access via AT&T or Verizon Wireless, satellite access, or dial-up. Wireless is subject to dropped service, like cell phones, and isn't as fast as landline technology. Satellite service is expensive, and there are use restrictions. Dial-up is so slow it is "just crippling," Riffle said. "In the world that we live in today, high-speed Internet access is not a luxury. I think it's an absolute necessity." After Frontier took over, "I made my displeasure known that this needed to be corrected," Riffle said. Many others joined in a chorus of pleas. So far broadband has perhaps had the biggest impact in Leon at the school because it has been available there longer and educators are keen to take advantage of the opportunities it offers. When the Leon Lions were first connected, use was limited because access was available only in the school's 27-station computer lab, Principal Don Bower said. Last year, routers were installed to make wireless service available throughout the school. "It made such a difference," Bower said. "Now we have the computer lab, a mobile lab with 25 computers, and at least five computers in every classroom. This has enhanced our ability to get kids involved more quickly." Leon Elementary has 150 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Bower estimates about 100 students now have broadband service at home, too. He attributes the high home rate to the fact that many of the families in the area have four or five children. Students and parents can view class assignments, study materials and a calendar of events on the school's website, and parents can check their children's grades. The school has won some grant money, and Bower believes each student may be issued a laptop by the end of the year. He thinks it is only a matter of time until the school does away with textbooks, which are costly, in favor of online materials, which are available any time, anywhere a student has Internet access. "I taught in Florida for 12 years," Bower said. "We were always ahead in West Virginia with technology." Amber Stover, a Leon Elementary special education teacher, wishes Frontier's service reached her home, which is about 14 miles away, toward Jackson County. She is paying $85 a month for Hughes Net satellite Internet service and is locked into a two-year contract. "It's outrageous," she said. But Stover needs broadband so she can take continuing education classes at home. Tate Hayman, who teaches fifth grade, lives eight miles from the school. He uses an AT&T wireless card to access the Internet so he can take online classes at home. "The service is pretty good -- it's faster than dial-up but not as fast as the service at school," he said. Connie McCarty, who teaches reading, lives 10 miles north of Point Pleasant in an area Frontier served before the company bought Verizon's West Virginia landlines. She has had broadband Internet service at home for quite some time. Although some Leon students still have dial-up service at home, McCarty noted that a lot of students are savvy about technology and have the Internet on their phones. Students and teachers aren't the only ones taking advantage of education opportunities online. Keith DeWeese, who retired after working in maintenance for 38 years at American Electric Power, uses the Internet for Bible study. A deacon in the Point of Faith Church, he also found materials online that he uses in a Bible study class for elementary school students. He's thinking of taking classes so he can become a teacher of handicapped and underprivileged children. "Going back to school with dial-up is just not possible" because it's so slow, he said. DeWeese recently learned that his nephew was involved in a motorcycle crash near Point Pleasant when his sister-in-law posted the news on her Facebook page. Without access to the Internet, he's not sure when he would have learned of the accident. Before Frontier bought Verizon's landline business, DeWeese said a Verizon employee told him the odds were that Leon wasn't going to get high-speed Internet service. "This is something we had to fight for," he said. "We're tickled to death we got it." Leon Town Councilman Greg Barker said, "Frontier came through for us. I've had excellent service. I haven't had a down day." Before Stephen Reedy re-opened a convenience store and gasoline station two weeks ago on W.Va. 62 just outside town, Leon residents had to drive 15 miles just to get a loaf of bread. The store was previously known as Country Lanes. Reedy has renamed it Leon General. He said Internet access provides the business with previously unavailable opportunities. "The state requires you to have Internet access to sell hunting licenses, which is a big business out here," he said. Reedy also has applied for a West Virginia Lottery terminal. And he's thinking of installing a wireless router so customers can access the Internet inside the store. "Even paperwork -- doing taxes online, downloading forms -- the Internet cuts off hours of work," he said. Reedy currently employs family members but figures the store eventually will have nine employees. Mayor Riffle said of Reedy's store, "I'm very pleased he's got that back open. This community absolutely needs that." The mayor, like Reedy, uses the Internet to keep up with paperwork. The town is finishing a $3.5 million sewer project. Riffle said it has been critical to stay in touch with all of the federal and state agencies involved throughout the project. Leon had 330 residents 100 years ago, when it provided a low crossing on the Kanawha River. Today the population is 199. "For years people have been moving to metro areas," Riffle said. "Now some are moving back, knowing they will not be deprived." Reedy said, "I have a lot of friends who wouldn't think of moving down this way because they couldn't get Internet access. I think some will probably move now." Frontier has said broadband deployment is a company priority. Frontier said it provided access to about 38,000 households during the last half of 2010 in the West Virginia markets it acquired from Verizon. Frontier said it has made service available to 18,900 households so far this year. Dennis Bloss, Frontier general manager for the Huntington-Charleston market, said, "Many communities are starving for the service that makes sense, from a build standpoint, to get done. There's just so many of them. We're getting to them as fast as we can. "When you talk to people in these communities, you realize just how important it is to them. It is really gratifying to see more and more communities getting connected." Contact writer George Hohmann at [email protected] or 304-348-4836. To see more of the Khaleej Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.khaleejtimes.com. Copyright (c) 2011, Charleston Daily Mail, W.Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]